All went well. Speed was still there bit it dipped off fairly significantly as the set progressed. No surprise there – the main surprise was that I swam as well as I did. Keep at it an the progress will come.

I think I’ve finally found a rhythm to my training – I’ve got my running going again; my swimming and my biking are now in the early stages of development. I’ve done three of each over the past two weeks. I will now start to swim with the club and do two bike sessions per week from now on. That should push my training volume up to 6 hours per week. I’ll hold that volume until TSB and ACL start to converge. Hopefully when that happens It’ll be brighter out and I’ll be able to find more time to train.

My FTP is at an all time low – My goal is to get it up to 260w by May; that would have me at 4,2W/kg – which should give me a good performance in Lidingö MTB.
Swimming, while only just beginning, is not far off track at all. I can hold 1:36-1:38/100m for the long sets… should be back to normal in no time at all.

This off season has not been good – not at all. No motivation – then a burst of motivation . then sickness.
As the time to start training for real approaches, I should consider two similar, but different and important factors: where I fail and what opportunities I miss.

The badI fail to let my family know my plans. Because of this, I fail to SCHEDULE the training required for these goals.
As a result of this, I rely almost exclusively on opportunistic training. Last year I only planned one weekend training ride!

I focus too much on specific races. Because of this I miss out on the concept of building overall fitness as a daily goal. At the level of fitness I carry (and am capable of attaining) it’s far more valuable to simply aim for daily movement as a specific goal. The race performances will probably be as good if not better.

Potential
I could do SOMETHING every day.
On holidays last year I could have done a mountain run every other day – I didn’t do that.
I should run to work at least three days a week (to start with).
I should train on the trainer…now.

The GapsWhat I have yet to figure out is how to get my swimming training done once the club’s summer schedule kicks in.

There are many questions that need to be addressed – I’ll do this over the christmas period.

It’s proving extremely difficult to get moving this year. My season started very rough, had a few mid-season good moments and ended with a new PB in Lidingöloppet… quite good considering all the setbacks I experienced last year.

The preparation for nest year is none too stellar thus far. I’ve made the pain cave – something I had been planning to do for quite a few years. Unfortunately I have only used it once since I built it. I’m so far off track I think I need a solid plan to get some consistency back and then I can go back to my normal, less structured method.

Next year’s plan is already unfolding although using the word plan is somewhat deceptive since there has been no planning involved. Some races have grabbed my interest and I have signed up for them without any thought. With that in mind, it seems that the races and dates suit one-another pretty well and I will most likely fit in some more races too.

The race in May will keep me from spending too much time focusing (playing?) on the technical aspect of MTB in NICK trail – it will force me to do real training on the bike… this will help me build up to the Half Ironman. There is a long time from the Half IM to the final race of the season; I have a few ideas about what I want to do between but I’ll hold back on that decision for a while. Last year I got injured too many times – this year I have to stop doing that. The first action to take is not to do any technical MTB riding from now until next spring.

A-Race finished nearly three weeks ago and I did my first run since then just last night. A very easy 5km run followed by 10 minute superset in the outdoor gym. A very nice entry back to training.

During the run I was thinking of what could lie ahead next year. The answer didn’t come but a decision did: Keep the HR down for the winter.

A common occurrence over the past few years is that I am to strong in April -an April fool I suppose- and my fitness deteriorates from there. In an attempt to correct this, I’m going with a softer approach this winter. Keep the HR down for 90% of all my training sessions – regardless of the sport. Only in April will I start to increase the intensity. The hope is that this will get me fitter than I have ever been in my entire life… or something along those lines at least.

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Shit! Just checked my training diary; I haven’t swam in 14 weeks. That is going to take a while to get back on track.

I finally started my strength program with a bang.
Two pairs of dumbbells (two different weights) and a kettle bell were enough to the ball rolling.

I had absolutely no plan upon beginning but ended up doing three eight minute super-sets with two minutes rest between each set.
Sunday morning started with pain and today wasn’t much different. A swim might be the best way to get some training done today… let’s see what opportunities arise.

I should really wait until after my six weeks in the gym before I plan next year but I had a quick look around today and have done some pre-planning.

Lidingöloppet 2015 is booked. Specific prep will begin running on the trails in Praiano in July. I hope to have good running speed by then and I’ll start to convert that speed into hill strength from July to October.

The question is do I:
1/ Do Vansbro Triathlon
2/ Do stockholm Aquathlon
3/ XTerra Stockholm

The calendar is not fixed yet for 2015 but there is a chance that the Aquathlon/Xterra could be two weeks after Vansbro – the race distances are within a range of each other such that it would be easy enough to adapt a training program to fit all races.

Doing the triathlon will require time on the bike; putting together that time is a puzzle that has thus far eluded me since I have become a father. I will try again this year and see how far I get.